MEXICO: Terror in Pantanal, Nayarit

Four more deaths in Mexico’s drug war were counted Friday morning after a clash between rival criminal gangs occurred between 6:30 and 8:00 AM this Friday in the town of Pantanal, located in the municipality of Xalisco, Nayarit.

After the battle had ended and authorities had arrived, the bodies of the four gunmen were located inside a heavily damaged kindergarden compound. Due to the early hour of the fighting the school was empty and there were no innocent victims.

A nearby estate was being used as a safehouse by one group of gunmen and was the apparent target of the early morning attack by a rival gang. During the hour long firefight before police authorities and the army arrived the fighting had spread to the kindergarden.

A cache of 8 rifles, 11 grenades, a grenade launcher and 87 magazines, in addition to 7 vehicles that had previously been reported stolen from the nearby city of Tepic, were recovered from the safehouse and the kindergarden.

A confrontation between gunmen and army troops was also reported when a military unit reached the scene of the fighting. According to a statement from Sedena (Mexico’s defence department) the four gunmen were killed by the military.

Terrified residents of this community close to the state capitol of Tepic closed shops, suspended classes and those who could fled to the capitol.

AP – 2 hours 22 minutes agoMexican prosecutors are offering 8 million pesos ($658,000) for information leading to the capture of two suspects in the massacre of 72 illegal Central and South American migrants.

The Canadian Press via Yahoo! Canada News – 2 hours 39 minutes agoACAPULCO, Mexico – A gubernatorial candidate who joined Mexico’s main leftist political party less than a year ago appeared headed for victory Monday in the drug-cartel battleground state of Guerrero.

Columbia Daily Tribune – 11 minutes agoThe Mexico boys basketball team didn’t have a player score in double figures, but that didn’t stop the third-ranked team in Class 4 from remaining undefeated with a 41-32 win over North Central Missouri Conference rival Fulton in the final game of the MFA Oil/Break Time Shootout.

Daily Mail – Mon Jan 31, 8:22 am ETThere was a Mexican flavour as Sauber unveiled their new car today. Drivers Sergio Perez from Mexico and Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi drew back the tarpaulin on the new C30.

Abbotsford Mission Times – 21 minutes agoA giant oil slick threatens to pollute the fragile wetlands of Louisiana, as officials warned that toxic crude was pouring from a ruptured well into the Gulf of Mexico five times faster than previously thought.

FOX 11 Tucson – 2 hours 49 minutes agoIn Mexico, federal marshals capture a fugitive who fled there after an alleged crime spree in southern Arizona. Jesus Mendivil, 25, a U.S. citizen, was arrested at a home in Sonora, Mexico and turned over to U.S. authorities. Police say Mendivil was wanted on charges from a shootout in 2009 that was connected to a home invasion west of Tucson …

AP via Yahoo! News – Sun Jan 30, 1:30 pm ETCorruption scandals, political violence and the drug war shadow Sunday’s gubernatorial election in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, home to the resort city of Acapulco and a cartel battleground.

AP via Yahoo! News – 51 minutes agoThe chairman of the Senate energy committee says he supports including nuclear power in a clean energy standard, as long as it’s done in a way that also helps the development of renewable energy.

Reuters via Yahoo! News – 1 hour 32 minutes agoAMB Property Corp struck a deal to buy rival ProLogis for $5.7 billion in stock, combining the two largest U.S. owners of warehouse and distribution centers in one of the biggest real-estate transactions since the financial crisis.

“El Lobo” Oscar Orlando Nava Valencia (seated) and other members of the Cartel del Milenio during their presentation at the Attorney General’s office in Mexico City after their capture on October, 2009.

Mexico has extradited “El Lobo” Oscar Orlando Nava Valencia, former kingpin of the “cartel de los Valencia” or Milenio cartel, to the U.S. to face charges of conspiracy and drug trafficking before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The transfer of custody from AFI (Federal Investrigative Agency) officials to representatives from the U.S. Marshals Service for Nava Valencia was held January 27 at the airport in Toluca, Mexico.

Nava Valencia was captured after a gun battle with Mexican Army troops on October 28, 2009 in the municipality of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, Jalisco.

“El Lobo” and his brother Juan “El Tigre” Nava Valencia were responsible for the planning and movement of cocaine shipments from South and Central America to the port of Manzanillo, Colima from where it was smuggled into the United States.

After the arrest of “El Lobo”, Juan Nava Valencia took over the leadership of the Milenio cartel until May 6, 2010 when he also was arrested during an army operation in Guadalajara.

According to Mexican law enforcement investigators, “El Lobo” was a collaborator in trafficking operations with Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel and had close links with the Sinaloa Cartel and Joaquin “el Chapo” Guzman.

The Nava Valencia brothers and Nacho Coronel had as their center of operations the states of Jalisco, Colima and Nayarit, and also had a presence in Michoacan. Investigators believe the void left after the death of Coronel and the arrests of the Valencias are the main reason for the violent dispute for control of drug trafficking in Jalisco and Nayarit.

The criminal origin of the “Valencia” or “Milenio” cartel dates from the early 1990′s, when they were in control of the planting and harvesting of Marijuana and Opium in the area along the border between the states of Jalisco and Michoacan, and formed a wide drug distribution network on U.S. soil.

Again, a representative of the Church Catholic drug speech on this occasion was Joseph René Blanco Vega, vicar general of the Diocese of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

Ensuring that drug traffickers have absolutely superb and will never be happy for the acts they commit, whether in luxury and have millions of dollars.

” Consider the arrogance of the drug, how has our country for three years? How much pain? How much blood shed? And what you will serve all their millions of dollars El Chapo Guzman, who says he is one of the richest, the case will make it happy. Instead of happiness itself can be achieved in a city like this, if the person living in humility and away from the violent way wish to impose “Said Jose Rene Blanco at the Cathedral.

Hours after two men were found burned inside a bin in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon, the Mexican Army clashed with a man in the same municipality.

It was about 04:00 hrs when military personnel was made aware of the presence of a man suspected circulating on Santo Domingo and Constitution avenues, the Balcones del Mezquital colony, that they decided to ask him to stop.

The driver ignored the military request, and began shooting at soldiers, so the aggression is immediately plunged into a confrontation.

Minutes later the gunman was dead even in their compact car, and so far not been identified.

The later This Sunday would have been common for the inhabitants of the municipality China , Where gunmen have not terrorized.

In broad daylight, armed men began to make trips air , Causing panic among the inhabitants of the municipality, who tried to take shelter in their homes.

The action was not a confrontation, witnesses say was an attack on the general population, as some saw that the gunmen were firing at random, and even grenades launched several businesses in the Central zone.

Sources said armed men traveling in about 10 trucks, some were hooded, and youth were no more than 25 years of age.

” Trying to destroy the village and we made fun of people, looked like a war “Said an anonymous witness.

On 29 January, managed to capture two people who were in possession of more than a ton of drugs and different weapons, that in the state of Coahuila, and was announced by an official statement the Ministry of Defence National.

The incident occurred in Piedras Negras, when receiving an anonymous military personnel arrived at a house in the New World colony and performed the action.

The two men were able to secure a 581 tonne kilos of marijuana, 13 guns, two handguns, 30 magazines, 732 Cartridges Apparatus for radio communication; well as three vehicles.

The Milenio Cártel hung several narcomantas in Jalisco, during the day on Friday.

The message was directed at Emilio González Márquez, governor of that state, and repudiates recent actions against the cartel by the SSP.

It also claims that the authorities are taking money from rival criminal organizations in exchange for political and police protection. It asks the governor to mediate the issue or he “risks” bringing chaos to Jalisco.

The messages were laminated and hung near roads and bridges of busy intersections. One of them was place next to the remains of several dead animals.

A few pictures were taken before the police were able to remove them after some effort. The perpetrators had secured them with great care, so the messages were difficult to remove.

Mr. Governor: if you want the violence to end in Jalisco, all you have to do is tell the SSP led by LUIS CARLOS NAJERA and ALEJANDRO SOLORIO and CARLOS ALEJANDRO CARDENAS EL CHARLY envoy of NEMECIO OCEGUERA alias el MENCHO, to stop kidnapping our people and handing them over to the group who call themselves the NCJ (Nuevo Cartel de Jalisco). If you want to avoid bringing chaos to Jalisco you must end this, or you risk turning the state into another Tamaulipas or Guerrero, you are putting the lives of your officers on the line in exchange for letting your directors take bribes from the NCJ.

We are not the proponents of this violence, but prepare yourselves for Jalisco to burn in flames. You think this is over? You’re wrong. Michoacan has barely started its war with the PFP, and you must avoid Jalisco having its own war with the SSP.

In regards to the traitors, the murderers, the kidnappers: we will take responsibility of wiping them out, like we did before you guys let this trash who call themselves Next Generation of Jalisco start operating in our state: They’re not even from Jalisco!

Acapulco, Guerrero – At 07:00 hrs., a mutilated body was found in front of a church in colonia las Cruces, which sits near a bridge that overlooks the busy Acapulco-México federal highway. Authorities at the scene described the victim as male, about 35 years old, thin build and kept a short hairstyle. His cranium and extremities had severe lacerations, indicating torture and he most likely died of head trauma. The killers had dismembered the body and left it laying in the street.

Marco Quezada, said that they are free to go, and the officers may return to their former posts within the police department.

Milenio/El Universal

The mayor of a municipality of Chihuahua, Marco Quezada, confirmed the police officers who were arrested last November in connection with the disappearance and subsequent torture and death of Mario González Rodríguez, brother of former state prosecutor, Patricia González have been released.

The mayor said that at the moment, there was not enough evidence to hold these officers on the charges of kidnapping and murder. Since the 60 days of arraignment are up, their rights must be respected and they are allowed to continue working in the department if they choose to do so.

PGR officers and Federal Police agents found the body of Mario González Rodríguez, in November of 2010, he was kidnapped on October 21rst.

The PGR admitted the weren’t able to prove a connection between the municipal officers and the death of Mario González Rodríguez, who was beaten and murdered before his body was dumped in colonia Granjas del Valle, a neighborhood just north of Ciudad Chihuahua.